Notes
Nye ran this in 1:54:55, awesome time for a first run up 'The hill'.
I am just glad I survived his training healthy enough to run it myself.
My strategies were to run as much as possible without aggravating a sore heel spur/achilles. So, I ran the first mile and a half, then switched to a 'run in the sun' strategy, aggressively power-hiking the shade and running the sunny stretches. My achilles was too sore to run much, so I tried to give it a thorough rest after the half way point while letting gels and water percolate for a few minutes. I was able to crank it back up and steadily passed people while mostly power-hiking the last 4 miles. I felt I was really cruising, passing runners while basically walking. I've never been on that side of the race between runners and walkers before.
Before the race I visited the rootbalance.com tent. This is a vendor that sells an ion bracelet which uses powdered tourmaline gemstone in silicone to shed negative ions that contribute to the body's electric potential. This is a new-agey less-than-scientific product. It is based on some real science, tourmaline actually does provide this electrical activity. To be fair, science does not offer many modes to actually measure and test all the phenomenal claims of products like this. The product was explained as very similar to earthing or electrical grounding therapies that are proven to provide therapeutic benefit, so I decided to give it a go.
During the race, my outlook was insanely positive. Usuallly, having to judge my injuries and pace strategy is an incredibly stressfull mental struggle. All of this was no problem. I wasn't overwhelmed but was about filled to bursting with gladness and happiness for the whole race situation. I felt there was nothing I'd rather do more than run up that mountain at that time. When I was aware of running slower than I had wanted, and had to let some 2 hour pace setters drift on ahead, I committed to a different strategy easily. Experiments with running were not successful, but not terribly dissapointing since I redirected my effort to power-hiking more intensely. I picked up speed as the race went on, despite steeper grades and really really cold winds. I felt awesome in the frigid conditions and passed people continuously on the way to the top. My typical anxieties about choosing one strategy over another, if a decision to run was wise or not, disappointments in general did not exist.